Friday, August 31, 2012

Media Convergence - Advertising & New Media (Olivia Dent, 42471346)

Advertising
& New Media.

By Olivia Dent (42471346)

Advertising has always been a part of our lives and the
desire for businesses to make a profit and market a particular image to us
means it will always be a part of our lives. Yet this doesn’t mean it hasn’t
changed. Media has always developed depending on the technology and desires of
the consumer and so has advertising from newspaper ads to Google Adwords,
television advertisements to viral videos. This means that more creative and
sometimes more intrusive ways of advertising are developed. In this essay media
convergence will be defined as ‘the process whereby new technologies are
accommodated by existing media and communication industries and cultures’
(Dwyer, 2010). For advertisers, it has become much trickier to capture a consumer’s
attention with the ability to fast forward through advertising on television,
flick the page in a newspaper or mute the radio. While it is found everywhere
we may not be paying attention, rather texting or surfing the web on our
smartphones. The medium is an important factor to consider when advertising to
people finding new ways to reach an audience on a new kind of device or website
is crucial to retain a viewer’s attention. Spurgeon explains, ‘They
[advertisers] are looking for new ways to reach increasingly distracted,
distrustful and disinterested customers’ (Spurgeon, 2010 pp. 27). He goes onto
explain that many advertisers must creatively integrate their advertising to
avoid being seen as a nuisance or interruption (Spurgeon, 2010).

Google Adwords search (2012)

One form of successful online advertising is search engine
advertising. The method is simple; advertisers buy a space at the top of a
search list related to a particular keyword. For example if I Google
‘advertising agencies’ on the 17th of August, three different paid
search results come up, one for a search engine advertising on Yahoo, the
second is for Believe Advertising and the third is for Press Play Creations. Press Play Creations offers integrated advertising for television, web development
and social media (Press Play Creations, 2012) which is another great example of
media convergence, not just the method I found it through. As Spurgeon explains
‘Advertising in search engines and online directories is the largest and one of
the fastest growing segments of online advertising’ (2010, pp. 25). Google offers
these services and it has earned billions of dollars from them and continues to
do so. In 2011 the profit from advertising revenue achieved a 29% profit increase
(Google, 2012). All parties involved are able to profit. Companies like Google
are able to gain huge profits from this simple advertising technique. Businesses
are targeting potential customers more effectively than television because they
are searching for these businesses. The user benefits because they are shown
advertisements relevant to their search. Google also profits from advertising,
not just from the search words but from the details they gain about their
users. They are able to effectively target potential customers due to the large
amount of information they gather about their users via Gmail, Google+ and Google
Chrome.

Facebook uses a similar technique, asking users to ‘Like’
pages to gather and then they target those users via a few simple
advertisements on the right side of the page. Users also have the option to
remove types of ads completely and asked to explain why this advertisement isn't useful. Reasons such as it “goes against their beliefs” or just “doesn’t
interest them” are some of the options (Facebook, 2012). Another convergent
advertising practice is businesses on Facebook creating pages to ‘like’. These
pages might feature free products or invites to exclusive events if you ‘like’
the page. This results in businesses having a direct path to their customers to
advertise to. This can backfire on the business as it has with Target recently.
An angry mother posted a comment on their Facebook page stating the clothing
range for young children that makes them ‘look like tramps’ (Bourke, 2012). This post received 50,000 likes and comments and resulted in widespread negative
media coverage (Bourke, 2012). So while convergent advertising can be a useful
way of targeting customers and creating a community around a product, that community
can revolt and create a negative image for a brand. Yet in this convergent
world we live in, not being on websites like Facebook can be detrimental to
companies, as brands are able to ‘retain some level of control in the creation
of messages, and creates communities where brand managers can learn of any
negative message that may occur’ (Sheehan,
Morrison 2009)

It has
been proven that advertising and branding via social networking works on a
whole new level. For example, a study explained by Pelsmacker and Neijens examined
the strength of a campaign if sent through social networks compared to other
media. It was found that something like a television advertisement sent to
someone via social media creates a more positive attitude towards the brand and
campaign because it was shared in a more personal manner, but if it is shown on
television it would get nowhere near that kind of reaction (Pelsmacker and
Neijens, 2012). An example of this style of advertising being a huge success is
the ‘big beer ad’ for Carlton Draught. This ad frequently aired on television
and also made a huge impact online, getting millions of views on YouTube and
being shared among friends. While it didn’t impact on the share price of the
company and the sales of the product slowed, most likely due to a slight
decline in the market at that time, they still consider it to be a success as
the brand as a whole benefited greatly (SMH, 2007). An independent survey
showed after the ad aired and spread across the internet ‘84 per cent were able
to name the brand unprompted, 47 per cent felt more positive about the brand’ (SMH,
2007). This kind of media convergence, an advertisement made for television and
to be shared among friends online is very popular among businesses, but it must
be worth sharing in the first place to be a success online.

The shift from conventional television, newspaper and radio
advertising has meant that advertisers need to be more creative in their
approach. The Big Beer Ad was extremely successful for Carlton Draught, while
it didn’t affect sales too much it gave them increased brand awareness because
they were able to reach a wide audience across television and the internet. Another
method of advertising with new media is Google Adwords which feature small advertisements
when someone searches a particular term. Google also targets users via the
information they collect from e-mail and the Google browser. This has resulted
in a huge increase in profits and a more successful method of advertising
rather than using other media. While
older methods of advertising such as television, radio or newspapers has its
advantages, targeting potential customers online, or creating advertisements
for multiple mediums means that it can reach a wider audience and there is a
better chance audiences will react in a more positive way and reach a greater
number of people than if it was created for only one medium.

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Welcome to the Online Essay Blog for MAS110: Introduction to Digital Media Production students enrolled in Lab 9, Semester 2, 2012.

Student posts will examine a range of digital media productions, theories, themes, concepts and ideas within an academic context. Posts will refer to the MAS110 lecture series, class reader and make links with wider research in the field.

MAS110 is a first year subject for B. Arts (Media) students at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.